Person Radical (亻) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
亻 is the person radical. It appears in 115 of the most common Chinese characters — these 12 are the ones worth learning first, and the worksheet below gives every one of them a pinyin header, a stroke-by-stroke model and blank Tianzige grids to copy into.
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What does 亻 mean?
Person radical · 人 rén · 2 strokes · person; people
As a radical it is called 单人旁 (dān rén páng).
It usually appears on the left (亻), or as a roof-like top (人). The Origin column below shows what each character's parts do — many take their meaning from the radical, some take their sound from the other half.
人 itself: The legs of a human being
12 common characters with 亻
Ranked by how often they appear in real written Chinese. Every character links to its own page with a stroke-order animation and example words.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 个 | gè | [generalised measure word used for nouns without a specific measure term] | A tally 丨 of people 人 |
| 他 | tā | he, him | An additional, "also" 也 person 亻 |
| 大 | dà | big, large | A man 人 with outstretched arms |
| 们 | men | [plural marker for pronouns and some animate nouns] | 门 supplies the sound |
| 会 | huì | can, know how to do | People 人 speaking 云 |
| 以 | yǐ | by means of, with, in (some way); according to; because of | |
| 你 | nǐ | you | Pronoun 尔 for a person 亻 |
| 作 | zuò | do | A person 亻 making something for the first time 乍; 乍 also provides the pronunciation |
| 从 | cóng | from | One person 人 following another |
| 但 | dàn | but | 旦 supplies the sound |
| 什 | shén | what | A file of ten 十 people 亻 |
| 体 | tǐ | body; style; system |
Related Radicals
- 乚Second radical · yǐ18 common characters · second (of the heavenly stems); a swallow in flight
- 二Two radical · èr17 common characters · two; a pair of horizontal lines
- 亠Lid radical26 common characters · the dot-and-line “lid” on top of a character
- 儿Legs radical · ér10 common characters · son; a pair of legs
- 八Eight radical · bā44 common characters · eight; a pair dividing left and right
- 冂Frame radical · jiōng18 common characters · an open frame; borders
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